By Elizabeth Ridenour
The Muskogee Phoenix, Okla.
MUSKOGEE, Okla. — A former Peggs volunteer fire chief accused of forgery and embezzlement will turn himself in this week, Cherokee County Undersheriff Jason Chennault said.
A warrant was issued Friday for the arrest of Roger Dale Fine, who was indicted Thursday by a multicounty grand jury, according to court records.
“He (Fine) made arrangements with the investigator from the AG’s (Attorney General’s) office to turn himself in Monday,” Chennault said Saturday.
Fine, 54, is charged with 16 counts of delivery of a forged note or instrument and one count of embezzlement.
He was the chief of the Peggs Volunteer Fire Department. He resigned earlier this year when the allegations surfaced.
Fine, who is also a deputy sheriff, has been suspended, Chennault said.
Fine is accused of forging signatures on the fire department’s bank account at First State Bank in Tahlequah.
Only Fine, Roger Dale Fine Jr. (known as Dale Fine), and Kyle Scott were authorized on the account to sign checks, make deposits and/or transfers, court documents state.
The embezzlement count states that all three men were required to sign a check “to pay the approved expenses of the Peggs Volunteer Fire Department,” but the money was instead used by Roger Dale Fine “for gambling, personal enrichment, and other unlawful purposes.”
The indictment alleges Fine fraudulently appropriated more than $4,725 “to use or purpose not intended or authorized in the course of his office as Fire Chief for the Peggs Volunteer Fire Department.”
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(c)2013 the Muskogee Phoenix (Muskogee, Okla.)
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